Some comments on the comments
Posted by: Sam Borden - Posted in Misc on Oct 20, 2009 
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The best aspect of this job is all of you. Your passion for the Yankees is incredible and it makes doing the work that Chad and I do incredibly rewarding. You guys have made this the single best Yankees destination around and, ideally, there would be no restrictions or limitations on what can be said here.
That said, this is a newspaper blog and so there have to be some rules to keep things civil and appropriate. What does that mean? Not much more than just having common courtesy.
• Racism, sexism or anything like it is absolutely NOT allowed. Same with personal attacks or insults.
• Posing as another poster is NOT allowed.
• Cursing or using foul language – even if you don’t actually spell out the word – is NOT allowed.
Basically, this is a Yankees forum at its core, and that should be the focus. Everyone’s views are valid and welcome, and should be respected. Sure, people will disagree some times – probably even a lot – but that doesn’t mean it has to degenerate into something inappropriate. Some basic civility is all that’s needed.
If you have any questions, problems or concerns about any of this, please don’t hesitate to e-mail Chad or me. Thanks again for being part of our world here.
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By the way, for those who have e-mailed either of us with suggestions about updating the blog roll, changing styles in the blog or anything else, please know that Chad and I are planning to talk about all of those “big picture” blog questions after the season is over. It’s just so busy during the playoffs that those kinds of things can’t get the attention they deserve until things have settled down. We do appreciate the input though, so feel free to keep it coming.
This also means that there will be no more GTLU until further notice.
so now we’re commenting on the comments on the comments?
if the yankees keep getting good pitching, and TEX HITS. The yankees will be fine.
if Tex doesn’t hit, forget it. The rest is only window dressing.
it is unfortunate, because it is apparent Tex wants it more then anyone (given his excellence with the glove this post season). However, with all the off days and cold weather his non-production at the plate isn’t really a suprise to me
but keep talking about Girardi, because he is the scape goat
Angels blog Halos Heaven accuses Mo of cheating. Secret to his success? Spitting on the ball.
http://www.halosheaven.com/200.....ball-video
Johnny Damon actually said that because it’s the playoffs, players shouldn’t be expected to hit with RISP? Someone put a gag on him, that is about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard….and that’s excuse making at it’s finest. If that is the attitude this team is taking to the loss, then I don’t expect them to get very far. Give me a break.
Upstate Kate, thanks for your defense of me. I didn’t even read that that dope wrote – I don’t come to this board to be attacked, so I ignore his posts and I’m a lot happier.
I think some “bridge jumping” is occuring after watching too many Yankeeography highlights. You know, those great teams from the ’90′s DID lose a couple of playoff games in route to their WS titles.
can’t wait to see what the “overhaul” looks like…
“NYY626 -GO ANDY October 20th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Erica – they played a little more of Damon’s interview besides that one line.. It certainly sounded like those were his exact words. He obviously shouldn’t have said it but I’m not going to crucify him for it. I’ve heard worse
In other news, Pete posted this pic on twitter and said “I guess Kate isnt enough for Alex”. I laughed.
http://twitpic.com/m74j7/full”
Seriously if you saw this live you’d laugh hysterically he grabbed jeters ass like he owned it.
I think Johnny occasionally has a hard time saying what he means to say. What I took from it? That it’s more difficult in the play-offs to hit with RISP. Which is generally a true statement. It’s not an excuse as much as it’s a truth. They still didn’t capitalize and they should be blamed, but I don’t think he was trying to say that the criticism wasn’t fair
the words Girardi + genius in the same sentence is as dirty as it gets. I’m still not over last night.
repost from last thread: Mo’s pitches all have a spin that puts a “dot” on the top of the ball, a cutter/slider spin. A spitball has almost no spin. It “squirts’ out of your fingers like a watermelon seed and tumbles like a forkball. There is no way to confuse the two spins.
Nice try Matt Chud, I just watched it again and it’s fairly visible on tv that Mariano’s spit goes to the ground. That Youtube video is doctored.
Gotta love the micro-analysis of every quote given by a player that continues, a never-ending brigade of ripping players over comments that are meaningless in the long run. Once the game begins again in however many hours (Erica can fill in the actual time) it will be completely irrelevant what Johnny Damon, who is one of the dumbest guys out there (by his own admission), said in his postgame meeting with the press.
All the more, in his idiocy he seems to be making the point not that nobody hits with RISP in the postseason, but that perhaps it is harder to hit with RISP in the postseason because pitchers are particularly bearing down and putting 110% into getting hitters out and getting themselves out of jams (see: multiple huge Houdini jobs by Yankees’ pitchers this postseason so far)
For the record, I completely disagree with Halo’s Heaven. I’m more than a little upset that moron Angels fans would accuse Mo of cheating.
Andrew-
Thats why I like my countdowns. They are constant reminders of “oh wait, there’s another game”
9 hours and 34 minutes until Game 4!!!!!!!!!
Reminder:
Due to tonight’s 8ish start time, GTLU will be played from 3-4:30 today (the game automatically ends if the lineup gets leaked sooner).
Please be sure to adhere to the GTLU cutoff. I was very kind in allowing late submissions yesterday, I will not ever be that nice again.
Jeter and Rodriguez are battling flu-like symptoms.
“Don’t get too close to me,” Jeter said on his way out of the clubhouse.
http://origin-nyp.nypost.com/p.....tCtwbG9gyI
Erica – I dont play, but this “…I will not ever be that nice again.” made me laugh
In other news, Pete posted this pic on twitter and said “I guess Kate isnt enough for Alex”. I laughed.
http://twitpic.com/m74j7/full”
Seriously if you saw this live you’d laugh hysterically he grabbed jeters ass like he owned it.
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Actually I saw the video, which is a lot less weird than the picture. Pete just had to get another jab in against Alex.
Oh dear me. the Yankees lost a game 5W-1L. Let’s fire Girardi. After all it’s his fault the yankees can’t score runs. Yankee fans are the BIGGEST CRY BABIES !!!!!!
pete abe can go eff himself. seriously.
A spitball? C’mon.
Sam,
You guys are doing a great job with this blog and the transition has been better than I thought. I just hope that next season we have all three of you (Chad, Sam, and Josh) posting your opinions on the team as it is nice to hear a variety of opinions as opposed to just one opinion.
By the way it would be nice if you could add an edit post button if at all possible for those of us who type quickly and don’t catch a mistake until it is too late.
sports radio and blog commentators are a riot this morning. just remember it was joe’s “micro-managing” that won us over 100 games this season and has us sitting 5-1 in the playoffs at this point. I’ll be honest in that I questioned the move when he made it (Robertson looked unhittable) but at the same time, knowing Girardi has made mostly the correct decisions to date and the fact that it’s his call to make are all that I need to support it. Go Yankees!
gary busey’s face
October 20th, 2009 at 10:05 am
This also means that there will be no more GTLU until further notice.
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Come on Gary Busey, everyone loves GTLU. I know somewhere very deep down (very deep), you do too
You don’t throw a spit ball by actually spitting. As the spit will fall off the ball on rotation to the plate.
You use lotion or some other substance that actually could stick to the ball. Like grease or vaseline.
Nice try by that Angel fan though.
Pete sure has had a lot of anti-Yankee posts on twitter since he moved towns. You’d think the support we showed him would have made him slow down on the silly comments.
And call me an optimist, but the Yankees aren’t going to have an 0fer with RISP for the entire ALCS. They’ll get some hits, and the Angels should be scared that not only did they lose 2 games already, but they needed extra innings to beat a team that has been awful with the bats. All depends on perspective people. If the Yankees bats wake up at all, this series is over.
I think we need to stop hating on Damon and complement him on his restraint. He was replaced in left field by a utility infielder who’s arm was arguably just as bad as his in front of a national audience. I’m sure the losers in Boston got a good laugh out of it. It’s one thing if he was replaced by Melky – someone with a superior arm but Hairston was barely an improvement and is much less experienced in the outfield and definitely a downgrade at the plate. I understand Joe was desperate but I don’t think he took into account how shallow a LF has to play in that situation – Damon’s arm would have been fine. Hairston would most certainly attack any fly ball behind him the way an infielder does (by drifting) so he would end up in no position to make a throw to the plate.
Good book about the spitball, Gaylord Perry’s “Me and the Spitter”. (I believe that is the title.) He tells how he threw it, how he hid substances etc.
gary busey’s face hates GTLU like it hates staying sober.
lift the embargo/boycott against Nooo Maaas . orrgggg
Lifting Robertson for Ace was the first real head-scratcher of the postseason, I think. People have been hemming and hawing about how Girardi is obsessed with tinkering and “mixing and matching” up to a fault, but his other moves to this point have not been nearly as questionable as that one last night. It’s interesting because Yankees fans had 12 years of a guy who rode the heck out of a small number of relievers up to a fault (Tom Gordon’s arm falling off in the 2004 ALCS), and now when presented with the pretty much opposite philosophy that has up to this point been very successful, they are outraged.
Hey, Pete’s back with his comment about comments commentary.
lol, I’m surprised it took this long. You guys have been doing a good job (but you let one racist troll hang out a little too long and there was some ultra-orthodox guy spamming). But nothing brings out the worst than a loss (even though it came 6 games into the postseason)
Keep up the good job. Just make sure the Yankees win, that’s the best way to keep the comments civil and clean.
I think everyone here, including me, got a little greedy thinking about a 3-0 lead. It was definitely possible, but you can’t be surprised that the Angels squeaked out a win. Everyone knew going in that it was going to be a war with the Angels. We’ve already seen two extra inning games and it’s only Game 3. I’m sure if someone said last week “The Yankees are sending out CC Sabathia in Game 4 with a chance to take a 3-1 series lead”, everyone would be jumping for joy at that scenario.
Which is why I can’t be too bitter at Girardi. In a way, it might be a good thing in the long run. Hopefully, he now knows he can’t always get away with overmanaging in the playoffs.
Erica,
In regards to gary busey’s face, anyone can have an opinion but some opinions are just better than others. GTLU sems to be favored by a lot of readers.
Actually I saw the video, which is a lot less weird than the picture. Pete just had to get another jab in against Alex.
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Well c’mon its a funny picture. I’m sure if someone in the clubhouse got their hands on it Alex and Jeter would be getting abused. Maybe swish saw it on twitter….
KF-
No worries. I have every intention of continuing GTLU throughout the playoffs. I know how many players really enjoy the game and that makes me happy
Matt Diaz from the Braves was on ESPN this morning and had a great line.
Players call some 9th inning guys close-ers instead of closers because they make the game closer instead of over.
JasonR-completely agree. The thought of them having a 3-0 was tempting, but probably too good to be true.
Trevor, while there is substance to what you said, in the fifties one of the pitchers (I forget offhand who it was now) gave an interview to a magazine about using the spitball. He liked using a certain type of gum to build up saliva to use on his illegal spitball.
That is not saying that Mo uses one. The cutter wouldn’t spin the way his does if he is doing a spitball, just as NYYROC said about it. The closest you get to the movement of a spitball is the splitter. It moves down late. Though I believe it has a lot of spin, rather than no spin. It is thrown by squeezing the ball with your index finger doing the squeezing. The typical place to put the substance on is your palm.
The over managing by Girardi that we are seeing in the post season is more than what he did for the regular season. So the assertion that he won 103 games doing it this way isn’t quite correct.
I think he just needs to tone it down a bit. He seems to want to use every tool in his toolbox, instead of holding back a bit.
I also want to have you think about Cano’s at bats in the post season. Watch how he doesn’t even look like he is gearing up to swing on the first pitch. I wonder if that is indicative of him being told to take pitches. Cano isn’t Abreu, and yet that is sort of how he looks at the plate right now.
Anyway, I hope the Yankee offense can come alive tonight and pound Kazmir into submission early. The Angels bullpen isn’t that strong, and if they are used for more of the game it can only help for the next game as well.
Jason, I agree. I think this was a lesson to Girardi. I was steamed after the loss, but waking up today I felt ok with it. We weren’t going to sweep the Angels and I like our chances with CC on the mound today. I think Yanks take it in 6. Lackey is going to be tough on Thursday but once we get back to NY the match ups better favor the Yanks. Girardi messed up but the Yanks had plenty of opportunities to score…just a sac fly and the game would have been different. But on to tonight…Yanks will pull it off.
JasonR -
I think there is some truth to what you just posted. After they won the first xtra-inning game in bizarro fashion (another Angels error), it seemed like they could not lose another game. Realistically, we know this is improbable, but the optimism that lurks within dares to hope.
So, now yesterday was a dose of reality – for the fans as well as for the Yankees (not that they need it, they’re actually doing the heavy lifting here). And perhaps the hunger was too strong yesterday to go up 3-0, and the desire to put the Angels away too deep.
It was a real shame that Alex’s drive early in the game, though it sounded like a HR, did not clear the fence, instead resulting in a long out. It would have been 5-0 at that point. C’est le baseball!
upstate kate -
I have leftover CC cookies and chili. I may have the chili for lunch, and save the CC cookies to enjoy during the game. But no more baking.
I think what went wrong yesterday was Andy Pettitte does not go by initials. I should have just made Applesauce cookies or Almond cookies. 
(This is all in fun – this is all for the “lighter side,” which helps me to cope with the pounding heartbeat and butterflies that occur while watching and/or thinking about the games too much.)
new thread… i don’t know how to put the emoticon though.. :-> ???
upstate kate -
And also, I should have know you can’t fool the karma – Arroz con Pollo is Chicken with Rice, not an “a” or a “p” in the lot!
Mo sure looks like a kid about to put his hand in the cookie jar right before he hocks that loogie.
Still, how many pitches do you think a “spitball” lasts for.
Don’t you have to keep spitting on it?
What’s the average life of a MLB baseball? How many pitches?
If all it took was a little spit to make Mariano’s ball move like it does I would think there’s a whole generation of secret spitballers coming soon.
Face it folks, Pete is not who we thought he was. Everyone should have known this the moment he announced his job change. You don’t just go from the Yankees to the Red Sox, right before the play-offs no less, without being a real low life. The worst was when he said he was never a Yankees fan, just a sports reporter. I’m guessing he really is a Red Sox fan. And now he takes pot shots at the Yankees on Twitter. Can anyone remember him posting embarrassing pics of Red Sox players? Ever?
Why would you want a fan as a beat writer? You want somebody to get the information and not be rooting.
As for his new job, he went to a larger paper and probably got a raise. People change jobs all the time in the media. Why is that such a bad thing? You never changed jobs?
The guy did a good blog and there was nothing like this before he started it. Leave him alone.
I find it sad that Sam even has to bring up keeping things civil.
I mean, it’s pretty simple: Treat others the way you want to be treated…
“I’m sure the losers in Boston got a good laugh out of it. It’s one thing if he was replaced by Melky – someone with a superior arm but Hairston was barely an improvement and is much less experienced in the outfield and definitely a downgrade at the plate.”
Beg to differ. That was a good move, as Hairston’s arm is considerably better than Damon’s — so is mine. Even if it was just a little better, though, the move is justified in that a fraction of a second could be the difference in throwing the tagging runner out from third. You also may be correct that Hairiston is not the equal to Damon in batting but Hairston was already in the lineup as the DH and wasn’t directly replacing Damon — turns out that the pitcher was inserted in Damon’s spot in the batting order. I suppose you can question Girardi on that move too but your lineup for the rest of the game has to be secondary to keeping the other team from scoring the winning run. If Damon had a problem with being lifted in that situation he’s a selfish player. In his defense, though, his comments about it being harder to get clutch hits in the post season is spot on. He’s just being honest. That’s why guys like Melky and Swisher will kill you in the post season. They hit .250 to .260 by feasting off of hanging stuff delivered by marginal pitching in meaningless games — with some exceptions. They are over matched by quality pitching and so their chances of driving the ball — in a clutch situation or not — goes down significantly in the post season.
is this the internet or grade school? It’s one thing to ban any sexism, racism, things like that- obviously there are no place anywhere for those. but absolutely no insults? no cursing? give me a break. this isn’t second grade. people curse all the time in the real world. if someone can’t handle reading a curse word or an insult, they probably couldn’t function at all in the everyday world. let’s police random, anonymous comments. yeah that sounds like a useful pursuit.
Commenter guidelines are fine and necessary on the internet. I was surprised to see the topic of racism mentioned as a possible problem on a board like this. I haven’t seen anything related to the topic ever on any baseball boards’ comments. There are those who have a financial interest in keeping the idea of racism alive, so I suggest that if any comment occurs that’s where to look for its cause.